Pages

Friday, November 9, 2018

Trade Recap: Cards With Gum

"To finish, or not to finish? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the knowledge of a set close to completion, or to take up trades and by opposing end it?" - Shakespear's card collecting younger brother probably

Recently, Jon from Community Gum offered up a lot of 2016 Topps Archive for trade. It's a set I've always liked, and the one Archives set I actually have a decent amount of. I looked at what he had available, and saw most of the base cards listed I didn't have, including the remaining Red Sox I need from that set. I figured what the heck, and sent him an email. In exchange for a bunch of cards for his Cubs players collection, he was kind enough to send me 71 cards from the set.

With those cards, the set is now 89% complete. I'll be honest, I wasn't planing on finishing this set. I was never fond of the concept of chasing short prints to complete any set, and Archives tacked on 10 hard to get cards right at the end. Not something I want to put much effort into.

Yet...89% is really close. I haven't completed a set since the early 90's when I was in high school, and it might just be cool to complete another one. Of course, I have other older sets that are above 70% complete that I could concentrate on without having to worry about acquiring higher valued cards.

I guess for now I'll stay on the fence. I won't actively seek the remaining cards out, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind for future trades. For anyone I may end up trading with, it'll be something else to consider besides the always welcomed Red Sox cards.

2 comments:

I hate modern short prints! I recently stopped collecting the 2012 & 2013 Cooperstown sets, primarily because I finally came to the realization that I don't want to shell out $1 or more for each of the remaining short prints.

I was just thinking about this question yesterday when I stumbled across my 1986-87 Fleer basketball set. I have a really clean set without the Jordan and was debating on whether or not I'll ever actually finish it considering a PSA 8 Jordan will set me back more than $1,200.